azurelunatic: Vivid pink Alaskan wild rose. (Default)
Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 ([personal profile] azurelunatic) wrote2020-01-31 03:06 pm
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Hack, cough, cough.

This is apparently the year where I start to treat my respiratory symptoms with the seriousness they deserve. It turns out that wheezing should probably get medical attention, and having lungs that wheeze loudly enough to wake me up when I'm horizontal and starting to drift off is Not Good. As well as the uncontrollable coughing fits.

The nurse triage line suggested I present myself in front of a doctor in the next 4 hours, or call 911 if I got less able to breathe. Naturally, all the appointments with my own GP were full. As were her entire office. And the other office the scheduler tried.

So were the house call service. (Even before we got to the billing coverage question.)

The urgent care is not actually covered under my financial aid.

Emergency room was.

[personal profile] alexseanchai is of the firm opinion that when you are sufficiently badly off that the ER is your best bet, getting there under your own power is inadvisable. (And with more motion, I discovered that yes, I was in fact short of breath and dizzy. Welcome to the majority of my schoolday winters.) I put a pair of shorts and underwear in my tote bag, plus two chocolate marzipan bars, preparing me in the event of a hospital stay. So Belovedest came home on their lunch break (which had been delayed by the sort of workplace fire drill that involved taking all the public computers out of service for an urgent update) and we were ER ho.

Masked, I said that I had not been out of the country. I'd started feeling bad when Belovedest brought a cold home from work three weeks ago, then I injured my lungs last week by trying to do a 20 minute walk in 15, and by the time I was starting to feel better from that I had caught Belovedest's cold properly. And now my lungs were involved.

I shooed Belovedest out of the room so I could proactively get the no domestic violence question out of the way, then we went over to a second little front room for some treatment of the nasty bronchitis. I had a delightful chat with an energetic doctor with a grey beard and got to use a nebulizer for the first time. I was reminded of a bong, which amused me in my reduced state of mind.

I was nearly done with that when the radiology team came to whisk me away to make sure it wasn't pneumonia. I was already breathing better. It felt softer, with less harsh popping. I pulled my bra out my sleeve. At this point Belovedest was quite loaded down with my various things. I bundled my braid up into a bun to get it out of x-ray range. (Nobody wants to have a cancer scare that's actually a hair elastic interfering with the picture.)

I saw the "tell us if you could be pregnant" sign and proactively said that it was impossible. They were pleasantly surprised that I had read the sign.

The chest X-ray was somewhat hard on my bad shoulder (which I am treating as if I have repeatedly subluxed and torn it) but otherwise okay. There was a Spider-Man sticker on the wall I faced to do the side x-ray. I did not get nipple stickers.

By the time they wheeled me back into the front room, I was cheerfully recommending Mira Grant to the woman tech who loves horror games. (Conversation went from the hoverboard transfer pads to White Wolf to horror in general.)

I finished my nebulizer, got a Tylenol 3, and discussed things. I get to see my GP. The ER doc would have given me a prescription for a rescue inhaler, but I have one and it wasn't enough. He would have given me a prescription for more nebulizer treatments, but I don't have a home machine. (CPAPs are generally not high pressure enough to do the thing.) I got a paper prescription for five-ish days of T3 for the pain and we were off.

(The pain didn't actually start to register until we were halfway home. My abs have had an involuntary workout. They're annoyed.)

I was actually hungry, so Belovedest found me a burger on the way home before zipping back to work (and from there to band). I finished the food and basically faceplanted. The T3 and lack of sleep had me out until around the point when Belovedest got back home.

I still coughed all night, but not as badly. I told Belovedest that of the things they gave me that made me feel a pull to get more of it, the breathing treatment was the one. Because, I said, I am addicted to breathing.

I'm also feeling the anger and betrayal of a miracle cure. How was it that I have suffered all my life when this exists. How.
alexseanchai: Katsuki Yuuri wearing a blue jacket and his glasses and holding a poodle, in front of the asexual pride flag with a rainbow heart inset. (Default)

[personal profile] alexseanchai 2020-01-31 11:09 pm (UTC)(link)
I am addicted to breathing.

insert Mad Max Fury Road screencap here
princessofgeeks: Shane smiling, caption Canada's Shane Hollander (Default)

[personal profile] princessofgeeks 2020-01-31 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Hoping you continue to improve! Sending good thoughts!!!
senmut: an owl that is quite large sitting on a roof (Default)

[personal profile] senmut 2020-02-01 01:30 am (UTC)(link)
I am so glad the breathing treatment works for you!
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[personal profile] vass 2020-02-01 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
<3 I hope you get many more opportunities to breathe.
pauamma: Cartooney crab wearing hot pink and acid green facemask holding drink with straw (Default)

[personal profile] pauamma 2020-02-01 04:35 am (UTC)(link)
Wot they said.
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)

[personal profile] kaberett 2020-02-01 09:41 am (UTC)(link)
... oh Azz <3
lannamichaels: Astronaut Dale Gardner holds up For Sale sign after EVA. (Default)

[personal profile] lannamichaels 2020-02-01 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh my goodness. I hope the breathing improves soon.
kellan_the_tabby: My face, reflected in a round mirror I'm holding up; the rest of the image is the side of my head, hair shorn short. (Default)

[personal profile] kellan_the_tabby 2020-02-02 12:08 am (UTC)(link)
yeah I remember having basically this hospital trip, but mine was about twenty years ago

it was like WHOA WAIT

i can

FUCKING BREATHE NOW

IT IS AMAZING

so yeah

i hope your regular doc gets you on a good med quick, because being able to breathe properly on the regular is ASTONISHING
snippy: Lego me holding book (Default)

[personal profile] snippy 2020-02-02 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
My allergy doc asked me to get a home nebulizer a few years back. I haven't done it because they're expensive, but the one time I had a treatment in the ER it certainly helped.
conuly: (Default)

[personal profile] conuly 2020-02-02 08:14 am (UTC)(link)
when you are sufficiently badly off that the ER is your best bet, getting there under your own power is inadvisable.

That is absolutely correct. I don't want to sadden you, but you've read the story of the woman who died in the hospital parking lot, right?
conuly: (Default)

[personal profile] conuly 2020-02-02 08:15 am (UTC)(link)
Do you also have a maintenance inhaler? Which rescue inhaler do you use, and if it requires a spacer, do you have one and use it?
kellan_the_tabby: My face, reflected in a round mirror I'm holding up; the rest of the image is the side of my head, hair shorn short. (Default)

[personal profile] kellan_the_tabby 2020-02-02 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
yep it lasted me a while too but yeah eventually *extremely dramatic wheezing*
conuly: (Default)

[personal profile] conuly 2020-02-02 11:38 pm (UTC)(link)
If you routinely need to use your rescue inhaler in the winter, then you probably should have a maintenance inhaler as well. And if your inhaler is supposed to be used with a spacer - basically a long piece of plastic that allows you to get more of the medicine - then you really need to get one of those and use it religiously. I don't know why doctors don't tell you this when prescribing inhalers, but in my experience they just don't.

Check the insert that comes with your inhaler to see if it's supposed to be used with a spacer. If it IS and you do not have one, you can use the top of a cut soda bottle or a toilet paper tube as a stopgap.

I do not, under any circumstances, advise you to go to the pharmacy to get a spacer. That's an enormous ripoff. It's a little plastic doohicky. You can spend $50 at the pharmacy or $15 on ebay to get the exact same product, still in the unopened bag. Even with expedited shipping it's worth it.

Definitely go to your doctor posthaste and talk about this. Also, see about getting a prescription for a nebulizer.

*thinks*

Did the ER not give you a prescription for prednisone? Awful tasting medicine, but I don't think we've ever gotten out of a trip to the ER or urgent care for asthma, with either Ana or my mother, where they didn't hand it out like freaking candy.
Edited 2020-02-02 23:38 (UTC)
conuly: (Default)

[personal profile] conuly 2020-02-02 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
It's pretty grim.
conuly: (Default)

[personal profile] conuly 2020-02-02 11:40 pm (UTC)(link)
(Sorry, after years of being everybody's medical point person in my family, I have Opinions on the subject, and a small amount of expertise.)
jesse_the_k: Alana of Staples/Vaughn SAGA comic (alanna amazed)

Breathing is fundamentally wonderful

[personal profile] jesse_the_k 2020-02-03 06:01 pm (UTC)(link)
...and I'm thrilled that it's easier.

But this sentence
I pulled my bra out my sleeve.
made me O_o.

You are an awesome contortionist!